Wed Mar 14, 2012 at 22:24:57 PM CDT

(A view from the pro-cockfight perspective ... - promoted by mooncat)

I am tired of people making false accusations about cockfighters. As Dardango said, these chickens will fight even if you don't want them to. I have raised chickens for about 6 years now, and I too have had to seperate them when they are chicks because they will fight. These birds that are faught DO have a choice in it. If they don't want to fight....they won't. You can NOT make them do it. They are treated like kings when they are going to be faught. They get the best feed, vitamins, are protected from harsh weather, go through a "keep" which is a just like a workout program that an athlete goes through and after they have "proven" themselves they are no longer faught. After they have proven theirselves, they are put in a pen and then only eat and breed for the rest of their lives. PETA and HSUS kill more animals a year than chickens die due to cockfighting. I believe that if your going to go against cockfighters than you should go after commercial poultry farms as well. Atleast individual chicken raisers chickens are organic and not pumped full of steroids. If people were to see what a chicken goes through from start to finish at a commercial poultry farm they would never eat chicken again. All I'm saying is if you attack 1 then you should go after them all.

And I would never feed chicken-eating members of my family commercial, factory raised chicken.

You have a point that roosters will naturally fight. I was raised on a farm back in the days when farm families raised their own food, including chickens for eggs and meat. Yeah, they got into fights. Usually the real aggressive ones ended up on the dinner table. But none of our yard chickens were wearing knives on their feet. And we weren't standing around getting our jollies by watching them try to kill each other, either.

That's a harm to society you don't address -- all those people who enjoy watching two animals bloody and kill each other, enjoy it so much they bet on the outcome. Making sport of death and bloodshed is not a healthy occupation.

As for your remarks about PETA and HSUS, you seem to be unaware that PETA has been very outspoken about the cruel treatment of chickens in factory farms and slaughter houses.

The best thing that you can do for chickens is to stop eating them and spread the word to your friends about the health, environmental, and animal welfare problems caused by raising chickens for food.

PETA and HSUS -- and people like me -- don't just want to end cockfighting, we want to end the cruel treatment of chickens and other animals wherever it happens. We also want to put a stop to or at least heavily fine the enjoyment of cruelty -- such as at cockfights. Folks take little kids to see this bloodletting! What are you thinking?

The HSUS also sent an investigator to Alabama to film some cockfights -- those interested can watch that video here. I'm assuming the chickens that have "proven" themselves are the ones that survive. The dead ones don't get to live like kings, of course.

the purpose they serve, IMO, is to draw attention to issues. And yes, they do it in the most dramatic way possible. They are media-saavy.

But by staking out the extreme, they make it easier for the "mainstream" groups like HSUS, ASPCA, and local animal welfare groups to work with government on all levels. PETA's like the "tip of the spear" on a lot of issues: they get people talking and aware of an issue - albeit in unusual and sometimes ways - but then the stage is set for other groups to actually work to affect change in their communities.

That being said, the day PETA disposes of animals using blood sports, steel jaw traps, using pets as "bait" to train other animals to fight, etc. is the only day that the cockfighters can draw a comparison at all between the two groups with any shred of credibility at all.

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith

It's a glimpse of the other side of this issue, the folks who raise chickens to fight and see nothing wrong with it. I was glad to see it here because it offers an opportunity for a reasonable, respectful discussion ... and the injection of a few facts into what is an emotional issue for many.

Maybe it's just my upbringing but I cannot get too up in arms over cockfighting...
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Dogfighting - where you have a domesticated animal capable of caring and even defending humans - is a different story. That doesn't mean chickens should suffer. They shouldn't. But roosters naturally fight. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Honest Abe all participated in cockfighting. I'd rather make cockfighting safer (i.e. no steroids, perhaps scoring instead of killing, no spurs and so forth) than ban it all together. And even better I'd rather focus our efforts on making the chicken that people eat safer and more humane.

all the comments on factory food are pertinent. ground up overage egg laying chickens are x percent protein. protein is an essential ingredient in cattle feedlot feeds. waste not want not. you are what you eat. regarding chicken fighting, sure it comes naturally with them. we've got a flock of about 35-40 egg layers, and we raise a lot of chicks each year. got 4 running around with a mama hen now, first of this season's chicks. got more getting ready to set. as the grow we'll have a lot of young roosters. they fight but for a few seconds, not to the death. the winner chases the loser away. the loser runs off, finds a hen the bigger rooster isn't watching, and pops her. we catch the excess roosters and give them to a family with a lot of kids to feed and not a lot of income. cockfighting is always going to be with us -- it comes with the territory. feed stores have shelves full of medications and feeds and other products used. money talks.

That has to be the absolutely most reason-deprived diary in the history of LIA. There is no reasonable defense of cockfighting or dogfighting or bear baiting or any other "game" that pits animals against each other for sport. "Roosters will fight naturally", I'm hearing. No crap...every male animal in the lower species and many in the species homo sapiens will fight. It has to do with mating and dominance. But strapping spurs onto an animal trained and bred especially for the purpose is immoral, stupid and now illegal. Penalties should be much higher, but maybe in that far-off day when actual civilization takes root in our rich Alabama soil, we will see some changes.

Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten. Cree Nation Tribal Prophecy